John of Brienne came to the throne not through dynastic right but through selection — he was a French noble chosen by Philip II of France and the barons of Outremer as a suitable husband for Queen Maria of Jerusalem, arriving in 1210. He ruled as king-consort, and after Maria died in 1212 he continued to govern as regent for their infant daughter Yolanda. These deniers were struck throughout that contested regency period, a time when the kingdom's territorial holdings had been reduced to a coastal strip and the currency's silver content reflected the financial strain of a polity perpetually dependent on crusading support from the West.
John of Brienne came to the throne not through dynastic right but through selection — he was a French noble chosen by Philip II of France and the barons of Outremer as a suitable husband for Queen Maria of Jerusalem, arriving in 1210. He ruled as king-consort, and after Maria died in 1212 he continued to govern as regent for their infant daughter Yolanda. These deniers were struck throughout that contested regency period, a time when the kingdom's territorial holdings had been reduced to a coastal strip and the currency's silver content reflected the financial strain of a polity perpetually dependent on crusading support from the West.